Category: Guest Posts
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Everything Will Be Fine. Here’s Proof.
Today’s guest post is from former English teacher Jamie Bowlby-Whiting, whose success adventuring on an absurdly low budget has made even my best attempts feel decadent. He’s developed two core principles for his adventures: 1. impossible is nothing, and 2. everything will be fine (until it isn’t). This story reminds me so very strongly of that first carefree summer I spent crossing Europe in 2007 (particularly the ever-popular Eastern European arrest), and so it’s not without a little pang of nostalgia that I publish this post. Take it away, Jamie… A few months ago, I found myself working as an English teacher at a… Continue reading →
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What Exactly Is It That Stops You Following Your Dreams?
This is a guest post by Fraser Baillie, who last month took the giant leap of jacking it all in and hitting the road. Today he shares some retrospective thoughts, 3,000 miles from home at the far end of Europe, about the turning point that made his dream into the reality he now lives every day. What Stops You From Following Your Dreams? The single thing that made a difference for me that day — about 19 months ago now — was a subtle change in belief. Continue reading →
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Cycling East with Alex Gandy: At the foot of the Pamir Highway
Today’s article comes from Alex Gandy, who just six months ago began cycling east (hence the title of his blog) from Istanbul. Half a year after taking the plunge, he’d like to share a few lessons from the open road, direct to you from a smoky internet cafe in downtown Dushanbe… Compressing life down into what you can fit onto a bicycle has the remarkable ability to de-clutter. Camping gear, clothes, food and water, some cash and maybe a few luxuries is as much as anyone would ever want to drag up a hill. With just the necessities, life becomes very simple. Just me,… Continue reading →
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The Moment I Actually Began To Enjoy Bicycle Touring
Earlier in 2012 I cycled from Vancouver to San Francisco with my brother Ben, who was a complete newcomer to life on the road. I asked him to share his experience of getting to grips with cycle-touring. Strangely enough, it was on a night of torrential rain in a northern Oregon forest that I actually started to enjoy travelling by bike. http://flickr.com/photos/ballenuk/7879203992/ Continue reading →
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Guest Blog: Raised From The Alive
For this, the first in an occasional series of guest blogs (they’re all the rage these days), I’d like to re-introduce an old friend, a man with whom I braved the horrors of Western and Central Europe for 10 weeks of this bicycle journey… ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Mark Maultby! Take it away… Hello there. This isn’t Tom writing. What?! Sorry, but I’m hi-jacking this space for my own agenda. Actually, ‘hi-jacking’ is too fierce a word; how about ‘trampling-on’? Continue reading →